London, Cacklegoose Press in association with the State Hermitage, St Petersburg 1995

416 pages, 60 colour plates, approx. 1,350 illustrations in black-and-white. Cloth binding in laminated full-colour dust jacket. Numbered limited edition. number 537. Commissioned and produced in 1773-4 for Catherine the Great of Russia, the Service was destined for a 'palace' she was building in English Gothick style between St Petersburg and her summer residence at Tsarskoe Selo. Surrounded by marshes, the palace was known as La Grenouillère, hence the device of a bright green frog that appears on every piece of the Service. The Empress particularly asked for views of landscape gardens, and many of the finest gardens in Britain are depicted, together with a great array of 'Antiquities' – ruined castles and abbeys, old manor houses, Cornish dolmens – as well as romantic landscapes, views on the Thames at London and even early industrial sites. This commemorative book, which was published in 1995 to mark the 200th anniversary of Wedgwood's. It presents for the first time the entire Service in colour and monochrome plates, with over 350 large detailed illustrations, 60 colour plates and more than 1,000 reference illustrations, with entries on each of the places depicted. It also includes essays on the making and decorating of the Service, the remarkable history of its survival in Russia, and on Catherine the Great's passion for things English. Amongst landscapes and country houses featured are Stowe, Blenheim and Alnwick Castle for instance.

Glasgow James Lumsden & Son, [1825, 1828 and 1831] 1831

Third and improved edition. Fold out map as frontis, vii + 280 pages,4 tissue guarded leaves of plates + 2 further fold out maps. Tall 12mo, Gilt decorated calf. Top 5cm of spine missing. Binding cracked along with inner hinges. In pencil on end paper there are outline sketches in pencil of s landscapes including a sketch of Inveraray Castle and another of the Water of Douglas. One or two note in contemporary hands in ink of heights of mountains. Clearly a book used as a guide book as an accompaniment to a period tour as at the end of the book on one of the free end papers is a list of hotels used on the trip. Bookplate of Gavin Stamp on front paste down.

nd c1880-1890

Hand written title page in ink "Isles of Scilly". 40 large format photographs, some 8x10 inches(203mm x 254mm) and others 6x8 inches(152mm x 203mm). + 5pp snapshots All sepia. Foxing to mounts and some browning to these all but the first two images unaffected by foxing. Late nineteenth century album rebound in modern cloth preserving original album spine. New end papers. Overall 80% of images are sharp, 20% have some fading but in all cases the interest and quality of the compositions is very good. The images comprise the house and gardens at Tresco Abbey including 2 striking 8x10 inch (203mm x 254mm) interiors of the house, further interiors and exteriors of one of the green houses, the ornamental grounds with subtropical plants including Yucca's and setting. Yet other images document social history aspects of the island. These document working life, daffodil fields, commercial flowers and fishing. Others concentrate on leisure pursuits including tennis + rowing. The sea is always present. 18 of the images are attributable to the the Gibsons and 8 to John Valentine but others have no attribution. The album includes two images of the contemporary ferry, possibly the Little Western. As well as an image of Cromwell's Castle, built after the 1651 conquest of the Scilly Isles it is one of the few surviving Cromwellian fortifications in Britain. Also excellent images record the unique coastal geology of Peninnis Head (Southern most point of saint Mary's) and Round Island Lighthouse designed by William Tregathen Douglas for Trinity House, completed in 1887. These images also give a fascinating insight into period dress. A rare insight into the social history, architecture, geology and horticulture of a unique island at at time when the proprietors of the Scilly's was Thomas Algernon Smith-Dorrien-Smith of Tresco Abbey.